What’s Wrong With This Image?

I hear my mother’s voice
questioning my intentions
certain I’m not doing it right
this wifely thing

I’ll be abandoned, surely –
it all rests on a string for her –
if dinner isn’t on the table at 4:38
or the beds are not made right away
or the laundry basket, unfolded,
remains in sight –
then who blames the man
for leaving.

Six generations now
I’ve witnessed women fighting
for equality, for recognition
and still the old guard holds on

And now politicians –
men with loose jowled egos
and paunchy stances –
and so-called religious leaders
call for a retraction –
women’s lives at stake

Who will lobby for women’s rights
when the female voice is silenced
needs carefully tucked away
so as not to raise ire in her mate?

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VJ

Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

24 thoughts on “What’s Wrong With This Image?”

  2. You captured it so well, this backlash against women, the whittling away of our rights over our bodies, and now some politicians are questioning out right to vote, I’ve heard. It’s rightening and disgusting.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. This is the most disturbing trend of all. You’ve captured it well. We shouldn’t have to keep fighting so hard. Now, many young women are just opting out of relationships with men altogether. Can’t blame them.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. So hard to win, so easy to lose. I don’t think young women fully understand where we are going, or take the very real chance of losing even the right to vote seriously enough. Those in power are not kidding about putting us back in “our place”. (K)

    Liked by 1 person

  7. VJ, this one really resonates with me.

    The way you connect the personal—your mother’s voice—with the wider political struggle feels so powerful. I share your frustration at how stubbornly the old guard clings to control.

    ~David

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I’m sickened by what I have been reading in the media. It all becomes overwhelming when we think we had made progress, but really it’s all just hanging on a thin thread.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. This is a stunning poem, so well done. You’ve given voice to all those women whose voices have been silenced. The following two lines are such apt metaphors:

    “men with loose jowled egos
    and paunchy stances –”

    Liked by 1 person

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